Exploration Series: Orange Liqueur Blind Tasting

Today we taste a number of orange liqueurs to figure out if there are any that really stand out while also theorizing over what flavors may work well in what style of cocktail. We focus a bit on some of the sharper more distinct zesty notes or fleshy notes that occur in many of the orange liqueur.

when i went in to buy grand marnier, they sold me on grand imperial instead, which is a lot cheaper, and i really like it to add to different cocktails, etc. what is your opinion about grand marnier vs. grand imperial?

Curious to hear your thoughts on Pierre Ferrand Dry Orange Curaçao; it’s apparently become a standard over the last few years. Based on the descriptions, sounds like something between Grand Marnier (sweeter) and Cointreau (drier) which may make it quite versatile. I currently have Patron Citronge as my orange liqueur, but definitely want to try some of these others you mentioned.

Thanks for making the Liqueur section of the Total Wine and More store less intimidating. You guys save me a grip of money with these reviews.
Please do a Vodka testing! Most people know the real crap from the really good, but it would be great to see the top dogs battle it out.

I’m surprised you did not have Pierre Ferand curacao in there, I really like it. You get the oak from the cognac with the bitter peels and spices. When I first heard of it and decided to try it, it was priced cheaper than Cointreau and stayed like that for a while. Then they figured out the pricing glitch and upped the price 10$ lol

I love how you guys read the Tuaca label and focus on the vanilla part of it, then you drink the Tuaca, mention the strong vanilla flavor in it and call it “a Licor 43, only harder,” and then call it Grand Marnier.

From what I learned working for a caterer: cognac is just a location-specific type of brandy (like champagne is a type of wine), so Grand Marnier and Gran Gala might as well be two brandy based drinks. As for the agave notes, I’ve only had cognac once (way too long ago to remember how it tasted), but I have often heard of cognac having flavor notes similar to tequila, so that may have been what they meant.

QOTD: You did the blanco tequila tasting with Doug and Curtis, and I’ve been hoping you guys would do a reposado episode.

I would definitely like to see an absinthe tasting. But whatever you end up doing, I would like to see more top shelf vs lower shelf variety in the blind tastings. It would be helpful information for a poor college student like myself.

great video there guys, love to see one of these tastings a week – it kinda sets up the rest of the video of the week, you all start to relax -, i’d request scotch or irish whiskey tastings, but hey if you’re keen on repo’s i ain’t complaining.

With the Patron Citronage, Derrick described it as having a taste of an old orange. From my understanding of alcohol distillation doesn’t the fruit need to decompose first before you distil it? Plum brandy is made by having plums decompose in barrels for about a month. Maybe that might explain the off orange kind of taste?

I’ve always loved blood oranges, so I’m glad to see what you thought of Solerno since it’s something I’ve wanted to try (if I can ever justify spending that much on something which isn’t even a core spirit), but I actually have a completely unrelated question. Specifically that question is that I have a bottle of Galliano. What do I do with it?